Somerset looking for new uses for Brayton Point Power Station

TEXAS-BASED DYNEGY Inc. is acquiring Brayton Point Power Station, which is expected to close in three years. / COURTESY DOMINION RESOURCES INC.
TEXAS-BASED DYNEGY Inc. is acquiring Brayton Point Power Station, which is expected to close in three years. / COURTESY DOMINION RESOURCES INC.

SOMERSET – Assessment studies are being conducted by town officials working with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for possible reuses of the former Montaup power plant and Brayton Point Power Station, which is estimated to close in three years, the Herald News reported.

Town Administrator Dennis Luttrell has assembled a team to assist with the process, and he said clean energy center representatives joined the team during two presentations of requests for proposals submitted by two Boston firms.

The center will pay “a minimum of $100,000” from the state’s Renewable Energy Trust Fund for a study to assess potential reuses of the two sites.

The two request for proposals received were from Meister Consulting Group, with a cost of $175,000, and Ninigret Partners, with a cost of $100,000, officials said.

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There is no timeline, and a center spokesman Matt Kakley, told the newspaper that the center, which will make the ultimate decision, is looking for “conversations between us and the town for which direction to go.”

With Brayton Point slated to close on May 30, 2017, and tax revenue falling, the study “would be looking at revenue aspects” in particular, he said.

Luttrell said he expects the study “will be looking into natural gas in terms of reuse.”

Meanwhile, Luttrell said he had a meeting recently with a representative of Dynegy Inc., the Texas firm that announced two weeks ago it was acquiring Brayton Point as part of a $6.25 billion power plant acquisition.

According to the Boston Business Journal, the coal-fired power plant on the South Coast will be acquired by Dynegy Inc. in a $3.45 billion deal for EquiPower Resources Corp.’s plants, a group that includes Brayton in Somerset and four others in New England. Dynegy, which reportedly had been interested in buying Brayton and two sister plants when they were on the market in 2013, also is paying $2.8 billion to buy a group of plants from Duke Energy in a separate but related deal.

EquiPower had already announced plans last fall to shut down Brayton Point, New England’s largest coal plant, by mid-2017, and Dynegy executives said that they’re going to move forward with the shutdown.

Brayton Point produces 1,530 megawatts.

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